UC-NRLF 


Ifi7    33fi 


ALEXANDER  GOLDSTEIN 


NANCY   HANKS 


NANCY  HANKS 

THE  STORY  OF      :       :       :       : 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  MOTHER 

BY 

Caroline  Hanks  Hitchcock 


NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY    &    McCLURE    Co. 
1899 


Copyright,  1899 
ByDOUBLEDAY  &  McCLURE  CO 


"  A  dirge  for  the  brave  old  pioneer ! 

Columbus  of  the  land  ! 
Who  guided  freedom's  proud  career 

Beyond  the  conquered  strand, 
And  gave  her  pilgrim  sons  a  home 

No  monarch  step  profanes, 
Free  as  the  chainless  winds  that  roam 

Upon  its  boundless  plains." 


PREFACE 


To  no  woman  whose  name  is  of 
interest  in  American  history  has 
greater  injustice  been  done  by 
biographers  than  to  Nancy  Hanks, 
the  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
This  injustice  has  been  in  repeat 
ing  or  allowing  to  go  unchallenged 
traditions  of  her  early  life  of  which 
there  were  no  proofs. 

Daughter  of  a  pioneer,  wedded 
with  a  pioneer,  Nancy  Hanks 
spent  her  life  in  a  conflict  with 
the  wilderness.  Dying  in  1818, 

when  only  35   years  old,  she  was 
ix 


x  Preface 

buried  in  the  woods  of  Indiana. 
Her  simple  life  would  have  passed 
away  as  unremembered  as  the 
flowers  with  which  she  grew  up 
had  she  not  left  behind  her  a  son 
who  forty-two  years  after  his 
mother's  death  became  the  leader 
of  one  of  the  great  political  parties 
of  the  United  States  in  a  bitter 
civil  struggle.  When  this  son 
was  placed  at  the  head  of  his  party 
his  name  was  unfamiliar  to  much 
of  the  country;  he  himself  knew 
little  of  his  family  :  he  did  not  even 
possess  records  to  show  when  and 
where  his  father  and  mother  were 
married.  His  opponents  saw  the 
opportunity  to  belittle  him,  and 
they  spread  the  story  that  he  not 
only  was  of  humble  origin,  as  he 


Preface  xi 

himself  publicly  acknowledged, 
but  was  a  nameless  child — that 
Thomas  Lincoln  was  not  his  father. 
Later  they  deepened  the  stain 
on  his  mother's  name  by  hinting 
that  she  herself  was  a  waif- 
fatherless  like  her  boy.  There 
was  never  any  proof  produced  in 
support  of  the  stories — curiously 
enough  the  first  in  particular  took 
many  forms.  Lincoln's  father's 
name  was  said  in  one  account  to 
be  Enloe,  in  another  Calhoun,  in 
another  Hardin  and  several  differ 
ent  States  laid  claim  to  a  share  in 
his  ancestry.  Even  in  the  present 
year  a  book  has  been  published  in 
North  Carolina  to  prove  that  his 
father  was  a  resident  of  that  State. 
The  bulk  of  the  testimony  in  this 


xii  Preface 

volume  is  from  persons  who  were 
born  long-  after  Abaham  Lincoln, 
who  never  saw  him  or  his  parents, 
and  never  heard  the  story  they  re 
peat  until  after  his  nomination  to 
the  Presidency. 

The  present  book,  by  Mrs.  Caro 
line  Hanks  Hitchcock,  of  Cam 
bridge,  Mass.,  is  an  attempt  to 
clear  the  name  of  Nancy  Hanks 
Lincoln  of  these  falsifications.  It 
is  based  not  on  hearsay  or  tradi 
tion,  but  on  documents  which  Mrs. 
Hitchcock  herself  has  discovered 
or  verified.  Her  interest  in  Nancy 
Hanks  grew  naturally  out  of  a 
work  she  undertook  some  years 
ago — the  genealogy  of  the  Hanks 
family  in  America.  In  tracing  the 
descendants  of  the  founder  of  the 


Preface  xiii 

family  in  America,  Benjamin 
Hanks  who  came  from  England 
to  Plymouth  County,  Mass. ,  in 
1699,  she  discovered  that  one  of 
his  sons,  William,  moved  to  Vir 
ginia  and  that  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century  his  chil 
dren  formed  in  Amelia  County  of 
that  State  a  large  settlement.  All 
the  records  of  these  families  she 
found  in  the  Hall  of  Records  in 
Richmond.  When  the  migration 
into  Kentucky  began,  late  in  the 
century,  it  was  joined  by  many 
members  of  the  Hanks  settlement 
in  Amelia  County.  Among  others 
to  go  was  Joseph  Hanks  with 
his  wife  Nancy  Shipley  Hanks 
and  their  children.  Mrs.  Flitch 
cock  traced  this  Joseph  Hanks, 


xiv  Preface 

by  means  of  land  records  to  Nel 
son  County,  Ky.,  where  she  found 
that  he  died  in  1/93,  leaving  be 
hind  a  will,  which  she  discovered 
in  the  records  of  Bardstown,  Ky. 
This  will  shows  that  at  the  time 
of  his  death  Joseph  Hanks  had 
living  eight  children,  to  whom  he 
bequeathed  property.  The  young 
est  of  these  was  "  my  daughter 
Nancy,"  as  the  will  puts  it. 

Mrs.  Hitchcock's  first  query,  on 
reading  this  will,  was,  "  can  it  be 
that  this  little  girl — she  was  but 
nine  years  old  when  her  father 
died — is  the  Nancy  Hanks  who 
sixteen  years  later  became  the 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln?" 
She  determined  to  find  out.  She 
learned  from  relations  and  friends 


Preface  xv 

of  the  family  of  Joseph  Hanks  still 
living  that,  soon  after  her  father's 
death,  Nancy  went  to  live  with  an 
uncle,  Richard  Berry,  wrho,  the 
records  showed,  had  come  from 
Virginia  to  Kentucky  at  the  same 
time  that  Joseph  Hanks  came.  A 
little  further  research,  and  Mrs. 
Hitchcock  found  that  there  had 
been  brought  to  light  through  the 
efforts  of  friends  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln  all  the  documents  to  show  that 
in  1806  Nancy  Hanks  and  Thomas 
Lincoln  were  married  at  Beech- 
land,  Ky.  Now,  one  of  these  docu 
ments  was  a  marriage  bond.  It  was 
signed  by  Richard  Berry,  the  uncle 
of  the  little  girl  recognized  in  the 
will  of  Joseph  Hanks.  Here,  then, 
was  the  chain  complete.  The  mar- 


xvi  Preface 

riage  bond  and  marriage  returns 
not  only  showed  that  Nancy 
Hanks  and  Thomas  Lincoln  were 
married  regularly  three  years  be 
fore  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
thus  setting  forever  at  rest  the 
story  of  Lincoln's  illegitimacy,  but 
they  showed  that  this  Nancy  Hanks 
was  the  one  named  in  the  will. 
The  suspicion  in  regard  to  the 
origin  of  Lincoln's  mother  was  re 
moved  by  this-discovery  of  the  will, 
for  the  recognition  of  any  one  as 
his  child,  by  a  man  in  his  will  is 
considered  by  the  law  as  sufficient 
proof  of  paternity. 

When  convinced  that  she  had 
the  documentary  proofs  which 
would  clear  the  name  of  Nancy 
Hanks,  Mrs.  Hitchcock  concluded 


Preface  xvii 

that  she  ought  not  to  withhold  them 
from  the  world  until  she  could 
publish  her  elaborate  genealogy. 
She  saw  that  the  biographies  of 
Lincoln  which  came  out  almost 
yearly  were  only  fixing  more 
firmly  in  the  public  mind  cruel 
and  false  traditions.  She  accord 
ingly  prepared  the  following 
simple  story  of  the  life  of  Nancy 
Hanks,  and  with  it  publishes  the 
documents  which  she  has  collected. 
This  book  will,  we  believe,  silence 
forever  in  the  minds  of  unpreju 
diced  readers  the  painful  doubts 
which  have  rested  on  the  origin 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  shows 
that  his  mother  was  of  sturdy 
English  origin ;  that  she  came, 
like  her  husband,  from  a  family 


XV111 


Preface 


whose  men  and  women  did  not 
fear  to  cross  a  sea  or  penetrate  a 
wilderness  to  win  land  and  home ; 
that  she  bore  an  honest  name  and 
gave  an  honest  life  to  her  son. 

The  service  Mrs.  Hitchcock 
renders  to  American  history  by 
thus  publishing  in  an  accessible 
form  the  results  of  her  researches 
on  the  Hanks  family  so  far  as  they 
concern  the  mother  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  a  large  and  important 
one.  She  deserves  the  gratitude 
of  every  admirer  of  Lincoln  and 
of  every  lover  of  truth. 

I.  M.  T. 


Contents. 


CHAPTER  I i 

CHAPTER   II.  .         .         .  2o 

CHAPTER    III.     .         .         .         .         .46 

CHAPTER   IV.     .         .         .         .         .70 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Abraham  Lincoln's  Birthplace, 

Frontispiece. 

The  Hanks  Coat  of  Arras,         facing  page  i 

Frontispiece  to  the  "First  Centennial 
Report  of  the  Black  Valley  Rail 
road,"  by  S.  W.  Hanks,  .  .  page  17 

Facsimile   of   Will    Left    by    Joseph 

Hanks,   .         .    between  pages  42  and  43 

Minister's  Return  of  Marriage  of 
Nancy  Hanks  to  Thomas  Lin 
coln,  .....  page  55 

Facsimile  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  Mar 
riage  Bond,  ....  page  60 

Marriage  Certificate  of  Thomas  Lin 
coln  and  Nancy  Hanks,  .  .  page  63 

Rock  Creek  Spring,         .         facing  page  76 


xxii     List   of  Illustrations 

Portraits   of    Abraham    Lincoln   and 
Rev.    Stedman    Wright    Hanks, 

between  pages  86  and  87 
The  Lincoln  Farm  in  Indiana. 

facing  page  100 
The  Grave  of  Nancy  Hanks, 

facing  page  104 


NANCY   HANKS 


The  Hanks  Coat  ot  Arms. 


NANCY    HANKS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ALL  the  branches  of  the  Hanks 
family  throughout  England  and 
America  seem  to  have  come  from 
the  beautiful  old  town  of  Malms- 
bury  in  Wiltshire.  It  was  not 
far  from  Malmsbury  in  Edington, 
Wiltshire,  that  in  8/8  Alfred  the 
Great  defeated  the  Danes,  who 
had  overrun  the  whole  kingdom 
of  the  West  Saxons.  All  the 
Malmsbury  men  who  fought  in 
this  battle  under  Alfred  the  Great 


2  Nancy  Hanks 

were  rewarded  with  certain  tracts 
of  land,  which  are  still  held  by  the 
descendants  of  these  old  families. 
Among  these  so-called  "  Common 
ers,"  each  of  whom  had  five  hun 
dred  acres,  were  two  brothers  of 
the  name  Hankes,  whose  descend 
ants  still  hold  the  "  Commoner's 
rights"  in  Malmsbury,  King  Ath- 
elstan,  the  grandson  of  Alfred  the 
Great,  having  given  them  one  char 
ter,  King  John  another  later  and 
so  on. 

This  ancient  town  of  Malmsbury 
is  ninety-six  miles  from  London. 
The  celebrated  "  Foss  road,"  one 
of  the  four  great  military  roads 
which  the  Romans  constructed, 
runs  near  Malmsbury,  through 
Cirencester,  Stow,  and  other  cities 


Nancy  Hanks  3 

up  to  London  and  York,  and  into 
the  far  north  to  Scotland.  Malms- 
bury  is  also  near  the  marvellous 
ruins  at  Stonehenge,  built,  it  is 
believed,  ages  ago  by  those  ancient 
Egyptians,  who  built  the  Sphinx 
and  the  Pyramids.  As  the  word 
Ank  (H[ank]s)  itself  is  an  Egyp 
tian  word  meaning  soul,  it  is  be 
lieved  that  this  family  had  lived 
in  Malmsbury  for  long  ages. 

They  were  a  clannish  race,  and 
for  centuries  it  is  said  many  of 
them  never  left  their  native  home. 
It  is  recorded  that  one  of  the 
Hanks  family  was  at  one  time 
shot  by  the  other  members  of  the 
family  because  he  had  ventured  to 
leave  his  native  home,  and  they 
feared  he  would  "mix  the  breed." 


4  Nancy  Hanks 

This  was  nearly  a  thousand  years 
ago,  in  King  Athelstan's  time, 
when  they  considered  it  an  ab 
solute  crime  to  u  sleep  out  of 
town." 

It  was  along  the  old  Roman 
Foss  road  that  the  descendants  of 
the  Hanks  family  travelled  when 
they  first  left  their  native  heath. 
As  far  as  the  English  records  have 
been  completed  the  following  facts 
have  been  gleaned  concerning  this 
removal:  About  1550  Thomas 
Hanks  moved  from  Malmsbury, 
with  his  brother  George  and  sister 
Ann,  and  settled  in  Stow-on-the- 
Wold.  Here  he  married  and  had 
three  children,  Henry,  Marie,  and 
Thomas,  Jr.  Thomas,  Jr.,  also 
married  and  had  four  children — 


Nancy  Hanks  5 

Grace,  Mary,  Thomas  3d,  and  Ed 
mund.  Thomas  3d,  who  is  said 
to  have  been  a  soldier  under 
Oliver  Cromwell,  also  had  four 
children— John,  Joseph,  Thomas 
4th,  and  William.  Joseph  moved 
from  Stow  to  Donington,  and  had, 
it  is  believed,  five  children — Ben 
jamin,  William,  Stephen,  Hester, 
and  Mary,  one  of  whom,  Benja 
min,  with  his  wife,  Abigail,  came 
to  America.  It  is  believed  that 
they  sailed  with  their  friends 
Richard  and  Catherine  White, 
who,  as  their  old  record  book 
states,  "came  from  London,  Octo 
ber  1 7th,  1699,"  and  landed  in 
Plymouth,  Mass.  This  Benjamin 
Hanks  was  the  great-grandfather 
of  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother  of 


6  Nancy  Hanks 

Abraham  Lincoln,  sixteenth  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

According  to  the  old  deeds  in 
Plymouth,  we  find  that  Benjamin 
first  settled  in  Pembroke,  Plym 
outh  County,  and  among1  the  parish 
records  of  the  Rev.  Daniel  Lewis 
we  find  the  births  of  his  children : 

Abigail,  born  June  8th,  1701. 

Benjamin,  July  i6th,  1702. 

William,  February  nth,  1704. 

Nathaniel,  April  i5th,  1705. 

Annah,  November  i4th,  1706. 

Mary,  February  i4th,  1708. 

John,  October  22d,  1709. 

Elizabeth,  March  5th,  1711. 

Rachell,  May  2d,  1712. 

Joannah,  October  Qth,  1713. 

James,  February  24th,  1715. 

These  children  were  all  born  in 


Nancy  Hanks  7 

Benjamin's  first  home  on  his  land, 
"consisting  of  thirty  acres,  being 
in  the  township  of  Pembroke, 
which  township  is  part  of  the 
thirty-fifth  lot  in  ye  land  com 
monly  known  by  ye  name  of  Ma 
jor's  Purchase."  Here  they  all 
lived  until  Abigail,  the  wife  and 
mother,  died  in  the  year  1725. 
Two  years  later  Benjamin  married 
Mary  Ripley,  of  Bridgewater,  and 
moved  to  Easton,  where  another 
son,  Jacob,  was  born.  In  1736  he 
moved  again  to  Plymouth,  where 
he  bought  of  Robert  Bartlett,  "  for 
the  sum  of  seven  hundred  pounds 
.  .  .  seven-eights  parts  of  the  up 
lands  and  beach  of  the  Island  of 
Saguish,  lying  and  being  in  the 
harbor  of  Plymouth,  together  with 


8  Nancy  Hanks 

all  the  dwelling-houses,  barns,  and 
fences  on  said  island  standing,  and 
being  also  two  pieces  of  salt  marsh 
and  meadow  to  the  said  island  ad 
joining."  He  later,  June  6th,  1745, 
bought  the  rest  of  Saguish  for 
eighty  pounds,  "paid  by  Benjamin 
Hanks  of  Plymouth  in  the  County 
of  Plymouth,  yeoman,  for  my  one- 
eighth  part  of  the  upland  or  place 
commonly  called  Saguish  in  Plym 
outh  aforesaid,  with  my  right  in 
the  beach." 

In  describing  this  part  of  the 
country  Justin  Winsor  says :  "  The 
pleasant  bays  of  Plymouth,  King 
ston,  and  Duxbury,  enlivened  by 
passing  boats  and  sheltered  from 
the  raging  ocean  by  the  beach,  is 
crowned  at  its  southern  extremity 


Nancy  Hanks  9 

by  a  lighthouse  and  with  the  ex 
tending  arm  of  Saguish  enclosing 
the  island  of  the  pilgrims."  It 
was  here  in  Saguish,  once  owned 
by  Benjamin  Hanks,  that  Fort 
Standish  was  built  during  the  Civ 
il  War,  and  that  the  French  cable 
was  laid  July  2/th,  1869.  At  a 
dinner  given  in  Plymouth  to  com 
memorate  the  successful  laying 
of  this  cable  and  the  telegraphic 
union  of  France  and  the  United 
States,  Judge  Russell  said : 

"  It  seems  to  me  almost  a  dream 
that  we  are  assembled  here  in  this 
quiet  corner  of  our  dear  old  colony 
to  celebrate  the  laying  of  a  cable 
which  connects  all  the  habitable 
parts  of  the  globe.  We  stand  on 
sacred  soil.  Here  this  land  is 


io  Nancy  Hanks 

privileged  to  hold  the  home  and 
the  burial  place  of  Alden,  of 
Standish,  and  of  Brewster.  Yes, 
even  to-day  you  can  show  us  the 
roof  by  which  John  Alden  was 
sheltered,  and  the  Bible  by  which 
he  was  comforted.  You  can  carry 
us  down  to  the  cliffs  from  which 
Miles  Standish  looked  out  upon 
the  little  place  of  which  he  was 
the  guard,  and  dreamed  perhaps 
of  the  great  empire  of  which  he 
was  one  of  the  founders.  Here, 
as  much  as  if  we  stood  on  Plym 
outh  rock,  we  are  on  Pilgrim  soil. 
As  the  Great  Eastern  neared  the 
shores,  it  seems  to  me  that  in 
the  gray  mass  of  wire  that  lay 
coiled  in  her  hold  there  was  a 
mighty  power  that  should  electrify 


Nancy  Hanks  1 1 

the  earth.  So  when  these  brave 
men  stepped  forth  from  the  cabin 
of  the  Mayflower  there  was  unre- 
vealed  and  undeveloped  a  power 
that  should  thrill  the  world. 
France !  England !  America ! 
May  they  lead  the  world  in  peace, 
and  may  their  national  ensigns 
float  together  in  amity  until  all  the' 
nations  of  the  earth  have  become 
the  United  States!  " 

From  the  old  records  we  find 
the  history  of  the  descendants  of 
Benjamin  Hanks  is  interwoven  in 
the  annals  of  New  England,  where 
they  are  known  as  "  a  remarkably 
inventive  family"  and  "a  family 
of  founders."  The  first  bells  ever 
made  in  America  were  cast  on 
Hanks  Hill  in  their  old  New 


i  2  Nancy  Hanks 

England  farm.  It  was  one  of 
the  descendants  of  this  Benjamin 
Hanks  who  placed  in  the  steeple 
of  the  old  Dutch  church  in  New 
York  City,  which  formerly  stood 
where  the  post-office  now  is,  the 
first  tower  clock  in  America,  a 
unique  affair,  run  by  a  windmill 
•  attachment.  The  bells  and 
chimes  made  by  this  family  are 
now  ringing  all  over  the  world,  on 
land  and  sea,  one  of  them  being 
the  bell  in  Philadelphia  which  re 
placed  the  old  Liberty  bell,  and 
another  being  the  great  Columbian 
Liberty  bell,  which  hung  in  front 
of  the  Administration  Building  at 
the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago  in 
1893.  This  bell  weighed  thirteen 
thousand  pounds,  to  represent  the 


Nancy  Hanks  i  3 

thirteen  original  States,  and  was 
made  from  relics  of  gold,  silver, 
old  coins  and  metal  sent  from  all 
parts  of  the  world.  On  the  Co 
lumbian  Liberty  bell  were  in 
scribed  the  words,  by  the  great- 
great-great-grandson  of  the  first 
Benjamin  Hanks  of  Plymouth: 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and 
on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward 
men."  "Proclaim  Liberty 
throughout  all  the  land  and  unto 
all  the  inhabitants  thereof."  "A 
new  commandment  I  give  unto 
you,  that  ye  love  one  another." 

Other  members  of  this  family 
have  sent  the  first  libraries  far 
away  throughout  the  world  to 
those  toilers  wrho  "  go  down  to  the 
sea  in  ships,  that  do  business  in 


14  Nancy  Hanks 

great  waters."  They  have  also 
erected  the  first  silk  mills  in 
America  run  by  water  power,  and 
made  the  first  cannon  carried  by 
the  Connecticut  artillery  into  the 
battles  in  which  many  of  them 
gave  their  lives  for  their  country. 
For  the  United  States  army  and 
navy  during  the  Revolution,  their 
inventions  in  almost  every  depart 
ment  are  almost  innumerable. 
Their  Sunday-school  publications 
and  work  in  the  Hebrew  language 
and  literature,  in  connection  with 
the  history  of  the  Bible,  are  well 
known  everywhere.  Graduates  of 
almost  every  university  in  Amer 
ica,  there  have  been  among  them 
noted  doctors,  lawyers,  ministers, 
and  writers.  The  Black  Val- 


RODNEY    HANKS    ERECTED    IN    1810.    THE     FIRST   SILK    Mill 
IN    AMERICA^ 


THE   OLDEST   AND    BEST    BRAND    OF    SILK  ON 
THIS    CONTINENT. 


Facsimile  from  Circular  of  the  Hanks  Silk  Mill. 

15 


1 6  Nancy  Hanks 

ley  temperance  illustrations  were 
made  by  one  of  Benjamin's  de 
scendants,  and  another  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  American 
Bank  Note  Company.  In  a  little 
pamphlet  entitled  "Hanksite,"  a 
new  anhydrous  sulphate-carbonate 
from  San  Bernardine  County,  Cal., 
by  William  Earl  Hidden,  dated 
Newark,  N.  J.,  May  23d,  1885, 
we  read : 

"  In  a  very  complete  and  attrac 
tive  exhibit  of  California  minerals 
brought  to  the  World's  Industrial 
and  Cotton  Centennial  Exposition 
at  New  Orleans  by  Prof.  Henry 
G.  Hanks,  State  mineralogist  of 
California,  were  several  species  of 
unusual  interest.  .  .  .  Sometimes 
the  crystals  are  confusedly  grouped 


'7 


i  8  Nancy  Hanks 

as  from  a  common  centre,  much 
like  the  aragonite  from  a  noted 
European  locality.  .  .  .  The  defi 
nite  formula  deduced  from  Mr. 
McKin tosh's  analysis,  taken  to 
gether  with  the  form,  warrants 
me  in  announcing  these  crystals  as 
a  new  mineral  species.  I  there 
fore  proposed  for  it  the  name  of 
'Hanksite,'  after  Prof,  Henry  G. 
Hanks,  of  California,  than  whom 
no  man  has  done  more  to  give  the 
world  a  correct  knowledge  of  the 
minerals  of  the  great  States  of  our 
Pacific  Coast."  (From  the  AnnaL 
of  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Sciences,  Vol.  III.,  No.  7.) 

Of  all  these  things  the  history 
of  the  Hanks  family  in  America 
gives  a  detailed  account,  and  it  is 


Nancy  Hanks  19 

therefore  not  necessary  to  enter 
into  further  particulars  here.  Suf 
fice  it  to  say  that  the  mother  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  belonged  to  a 
family  which  has  given  to  Amer 
ica  some  of  her  finest  minds  and 
most  heroic  hearts. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  records  of  the  marriages  of 
all  the  children  of  Benjamin  Hanks 
are  found  in  the  Plymouth  County 
books,  with  the  exception  of  that 
of  the  third  child,  William.  Ac 
cording  to  the  statements  and  tra 
ditions  of  the  various  members  of 
the  family  in  both  the  Northern 
and  Southern  States,  it  seems  that 
William  early  left  the  old  home 
and  embarked  on  one  of  the  many 
vessels  then  sailing  between 
Massachusetts  and  Virginia. 
They  also  say  he  settled  in  Vir 
ginia,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rap- 


Nancy  Hanks  21 

pahannock  River,  where  his  sons 
Abraham,  Richard,  James.  John, 
and  Joseph  were  born.  The  New 
England  custom  house  records 
have  unfortunately  been  destroyed 
''  to  make  room  for  papers  of  more 
recent  date,"  as  one  of  the  officers 
said,  so  that  we  have  not  the  name 
of  the  ship  on  which  William  sailed 
to  Virginia.  All  of  his  children, 
with  the  exception  of  John,  moved 
to  Amelia  County,  Va.,  where 
they  bought  large  plantations  near 
each  other. 

The  youngest  son,  Joseph,  must 
have  moved  to  Amelia  County 
with  the  rest  about  1740.  Accord 
ing  to  deeds  preserved  in  Rich 
mond,  Va.,  he  sold  on  January 
I2th,  1747,  to  his  brother,  Abra- 


22  Nancy  Hanks 

ham  Hanks,  "two  hundred  and 
eighty-four  acres  lying  and  being 
in  the  county  of  Amelia  on  the 
lower  side  of  Seller  Creek  .  .  . 
thence  along  Joseph  Hanks'  line 
E.  30  N.  122  poles  to  his  corner 
red  oak,"  etc.  On  July  i2th, 
1754,  he  bought  the  land  on  which 
he  then  settled,  and  where  all  his 
children  were  born,  the  youngest 
of  whom  was  Nancy  Hanks,  the 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
This  old  deed  is  worded  in  part : 

"  George  the  Second,  by  the 
Grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain, 
France  and  Ireland,  King,  De 
fender  of  the  Faith — do  give, 
grant  and  confirm  unto  Joseph 
Hanks  one  certain  tract  or  parcel 
of  land  containing  246  acres  lying 


Nancy  Hanks  23 

and  being  in  the  county  of  Amelia, 
on  the  upper  side  of  Sweathouse 
Creek  and  bounded  as  following, 
to  wit:  Beginning  at  William 
Tucker's  corner  in  Abraham 
Hanks'  line  .  .  .  thence  North 
140  poles  along  Abraham  Hanks' 
line  to  the  beginning  with  all  the 
woods,  under  woods,  swamps  and 
marshes,  low  grounds,  meadows, 
Feedings  and  his  due  share  of 
all  the  veins,  mines  and  quarries, 
as  well  discovered  as  not  discov 
ered  .  .  .  and  the  rivers,  waters, 
and  water  courses  therein  con 
tained,  together  with  the  privi 
leges  of  hunting,  hawking,  fish 
ing,  fowling  .  .  .  unto  the  said 
Joseph  Hanks  and  to  his  heirs  and 
assigns  forever.  .  .  .  To  be  held 


24  Nancy  Hanks 

of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors  as 
of  our  Manor  of  East  Greenwich 
in  this  County  of  Kent  .  .  .  the 
fee  rent  one  shilling  yearly,  to  be 
paid  upon  the  Feast  of  Saint  Mich 
ael  the  Archangel,"  etc. 

Other  deeds  recorded  in  Rich 
mond  show  that  near  Joseph's 
farm,  in  Amelia  County,  his 
brother  Abraham  owned  284  acres, 
his  brother  Richard  243  acres, 
and  his  brother  James  Hanks,  200 
acres  of  land. 

In  the  next  county  to  Amelia, 
Lurenburg,  an  Englishman  named 
Robert  Shipley  bought  314  acres 
of  land,  September  i6th,  1765. 
He  and  his  wife,  Sarah  Rachael 
Shipley,  had  five  daughters- 
Mary,  who  married  Abraham  Lin- 


Nancy  Hanks  25 

coin  of  Rockingham  County,  Va., 
grandfather  of  President  Lincoln  ; 
Lucy,  who  married  Richard  Ber 
ry;  Sarah,  who  married  Robert 
Mitchell;  Elizabeth,  who  married 
Thomas  Sparrow  ;  and  Nancy,  who 
married  Joseph  Hanks,  of  Amelia 
County. 

Joseph  and  Nancy  Shipley 
Hanks  had  eight  children — 
Thomas,  Joshua,  William, 
Charles,  Joseph,  Jr.,  Elizabeth, 
Polly,  and  Nancy.  This  Nancy, 
the  youngest  child,  was  born 
February  5th,  1784,  and  named 
for  her  mother,  although  the 
quaint,  old-fashioned  name  Nancy 
is  a  favorite  one  in  the  Hanks 
family  throughout  England  and 
America.  This  little  Nancy 


26  Nancy  Hanks 

Hanks  had  also  many  cousins 
named  Nancy,  one  of  whom  was 
Nancy  Sparrow,  the  daughter  of 
Thomas  and  Elizabeth  Shipley 
Sparrow,  who  was  one  of  her 
constant  playmates  and  dearest 
friends.  Theirs  was  a  large  and 
happy  colony  of  cousins,  and  merry 
were  the  days  passed  in  hunting, 
hawking,  and  fishing  in  the  great 
estates  of  nearly  a  thousand  acres 
owned  by  these  kind  uncles  and 
aunts.  It  was  here  in  old  Vir 
ginia  that  little  Nancy  lived  until 
she  was  five  years  old,  when  about 
1789  her  parents  decided  to  find  a 
new  home  in  the  then  distant  lands 
of  Kentucky.  They  did  not,  how 
ever,  go  alone  on  their  long  jour 
ney  into  the  wilderness.  With 


Nancy  Hanks  27 

them  went  the  Mitchells,  Shipleys, 
Berrys,  Sparrows,  and  also  Abra 
ham     Hanks,     Joseph's    brother, 
with  his  family.     An  examination 
of   the   deeds  of   Amelia    County 
shows    that    at    about    the   same 
date  all  of  these  families  disposed 
of  their  Virginia  property.      And 
their  names   also    first  appear   in 
the  Kentucky  records  at  about  the 
same    time.     Among   all   the    de- 
scendents  of  these  families  there 
are    also    preserved     traditions    of 
this  large  family  migration. 

They  made  the  journey  when 
that  great  migration  into  Ken 
tucky,  which  marked  the  last  two 
decades  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
was  at  its  height.  It  had  begun 
when  Daniel  Boone  and  James 


28  Nancy  Hanks 

Harrod  had  succeeded  in  estab 
lishing  in  1774  and  1775  stations 
at  the  points  now  known  as  Har- 
rodsburg  and  Boonesborough,  and 
had  increased  at  such  a  rate  that 
in  1784,  when  John  Filson  pub 
lished  his  "  History  of  Kentucky," 
the  population  of  the  new  coun 
try  was  estimated  at  30,000. 
The  Hanks  families  had  seen 
much  of  this  migration.  Indeed, 
in  1775,  Nancy's  uncle,  Abraham 
Hanks,  had  gone  with  a  company 
of  explorers  into  the  wilderness, 
and  had  suffered  hardships  and 
seen  adventures  that  no  doubt  he 
had  related  many  a  time  to  his 
nieces  and  nephews  in  the  long 
twilight  around  the  great  log  fires 
in  old  Virginia. 


Nancy  Hanks  29 

These  adventures  of  Abraham 
Hanks  have  been  faithfully  pre 
served  for  us  in  a  journal  kept  by 
one  of  his  companions.  Accord 
ing  to  this  journal  Abraham  started 
with  a  party  of  friends  on  Monday, 
March  i3th,  1775.  On  the  first 
day  his  dog*  broke  its  leg,  and 
then  the  recorder  states  that  on 
Thursday,  the  3Oth,  "Abrahm's 
beast  burst  open  a  wallet  of  corn 
and  lost  a  good  deal,  and  made  a 
terrible  flustration  among  the  rest 
of  the  horses."  This  excitement 
was  bad  enough,  but  worse  was  to 
follow,  for  on  Wednesday,  the  5th 
of  April,  "  Abrahm's  saddle  turned 
and  the  load  all  fell  in ;  "  now  this 
was  a  very  serious  matter,  for 
those  pack  saddles  contained  all 


30  Nancy  Hanks 

the  worldly  goods  of  those  pioneer 
emigrants.  Mr.  Thomas  Speed 
in  "The  Wilderness  Road"  says 
of  this  saddle :  "  It  was  a  rude 
contrivance  made  of  a  forked 
branch  of  a  tree  in  keeping  with 
the  primitive  simplicity  of  the 
times.  When  fastened  upon  a 
horse  it  became  the  receptacle  of 
the  goods  and  chattels  to  be 
transported.  Thus  were  carried 
provisions  for  the  journey  and 
household  stuff  and  utensils  need 
ed  to  make  life  tolerable  when 
the  journey  was  ended  and  the 
place  of  residence  selected.  The 
fork  had  to  be  a  particular  shape, 
and  the  branch  of  a  tree,  which 
could  be  made  into  a  saddle,  was 
an  attractive  object.  It  is  related 


Nancy  Hanks  3  i 

that  an  early  preacher  once  paused 
in  his  Sunday  sermon  with  his 
eyes  fixed  on  the  top  of  a  tree  and 
said:  'I  want  to  remark  right 
here  that  yonder  is  one  of  the  best 
forks  for  a  pack  saddle  that  I  ever 
saw  in  the  woods.  When  services 
are  over  we  will  get  it.'  ' 

When  Joseph  Hanks  and  his 
friends  made  the  journey  west, 
the  route  was  much  easier  and 
safer  than  when  Abraham  Hanks 
had  made  it.  The  great  majority 
of  all  the  emigration  into  Ken 
tucky  at  this  time,  even  from 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and 
New  England,  came  by  the  Vir 
ginia  valley,  thence  to  Cumber 
land  Gap,  and  thence  by  what  was 
known  as  the  Wilderness  road, 


32  Nancy  Hanks 

running  northwest  from  the  Gap 
to  the  Ohio  at  Louisville.*  It  was 
a  mere  bridle  path  through  the 
forest  and  over  the  mountains, 
but  this  route  was  preferred  to 
the  one  by  Pittsburg  and  the 
Ohio  River.  Much  travel  had  im 
proved  it  greatly  in  comparison 
to  what  it  was  during  the  first  five 
years  after  the  migration  had 
begun.  The  legislature  of  Vir 
ginia  since  1779  had,  indeed  con 
cerned  itself  about  the  route,  so 
great  was  the  number  of  Virgin 
ians  seeking  a  home  in  Kentucky. 

*  The  history  of  the  Wilderness  road 
has  been  fully  and  admirably  told  by 
Mr.  Thomas  Speed,  of  Kentucky,  in  a 
work  published  by  the  Filson  Club  of 
Louisville,  Ky.,  "The  Wilderness 
Road." 


Nancy  Hanks  33 

But  in  spite  of  travel  and  legis 
lation  it  was,  at  least  from 
Cumberland  Gap,  nothing-  but  a 
footpath,  over  which  the  parties 
travelled  in  single  file  with  their 
goods  and  children  and  some 
times  the  women  on  horseback, 
and  their  stock  driven  behind. 
Of  course,  they  went  in  as  large 
companies  as  could  be  got  to 
gether,  for  Indians  and  wild 
beasts  still  abounded.  It  was 
even  customary  at  this  time  to  ad 
vertise  that  parties  would  start  at 
such  and  such  times  in  order  to 
increase  the  safety  of  all  by  mak 
ing  the  number  as  large  as  possi 
ble.  We  know  from  the  accounts 
left  by  those  Kentucky  pioneers 

that  their  journeys  were  often  at- 
3 


34  Nancy  Hanks 

tended  by  grave  perils  and  hard 
ships,  even  after  every  preparation 
had  been  made  and  every  precau 
tion  taken.  Chief  Justice  Robert 
son,  in  the  story  of  his  own  father 
and  mother's  journey,  speaks  of 
that  "  tide  of  emigrants  who,  ex 
changing  all  the  comforts  of  their 
native  society  and  homes  for  set 
tlements  for  themselves  and  their 
children  here,  came  like  pilgrims 
to  a  wilderness,  to  be  made  secure 
by  their  arms  and  habitable  by  the 
toil  of  their  lives.  Through  pri 
vations  incredible  and  perils  thick, 
thousands  of  men,  women,  and 
children  came  in  successive  cara 
vans,  forming  continuous  streams 
of  human  beings,  horses,  cattle, 
and  other  domestic  animals,  all 


Nancy  Hanks  35 

moving  onward  along  a  lonely 
and  houseless  path  to  a  wild  and 
cheerless  land.  Cast  your  eyes 
back  on  that  long  procession  of 
missionaries  in  the  cause  of  civili 
zation  ;  behold  the  men  on  foot, 
with  their  trusty  guns  on  their 
shoulders,  driving  stock  and  lead 
ing  pack-horses;  and  the  women, 
some  walking  with  pails  on  their 
heads,  others  riding  with  children 
in  their  laps,  and  other  children 
swung  in  baskets  on  horses,  fast 
ened  to  the  tails  of  others  going 
before ;  see  them  encamped  at 
night,  expecting  to  be  massacred 
by  Indians;  behold  them  in  the 
month  of  December,  in  that  mem 
orable  season  of  unprecedented 
cold  called  the  '  hard  winter,' 


36  Nancy  Hanks 

travelling  two  or  three  miles  a 
day,  frequently  in  danger  of  being 
frozen  or  killed  by  the  falling  of 
horses  on  the  icy  and  almost  im 
passable  tract,  and  subsisting  on 
stinted  allowances  of  stale  bread 
and  meat." 

Mrs.  Tevis  has  also  given  a 
vivid  description  of  this  dangerous 
journey,  which  it  was  the  destiny 
of  our  little  Nancy  Hanks  to  take 
at  the  age  of  five  years.  She  said : 
"  At  the  time  my  grandfather  with 
his  brothers  and  sisters  came  to 
Kentucky,  many  families  travelled 
together  for  mutual  safety  and 
protection  against  the  Indians, 
whose  hunting  grounds  extended 
to  the  border  settlements  of  Vir 
ginia.  On  their  way  through  the 


Nancy  Hanks  37 

wilderness  they  encountered  bear, 
buffalo,  wolves,  wildcats,  and 
sometimes  herds  of  deer.  Thus 
they  moved  cautiously  onward  in 
a  long  line  through  a  narrow 
bridle  path,  so  encumbered  with 
brush  and  underwood  as  to  im 
pede  their  progress,  and  render  it 
necessary  that  they  should  at  times 
encamp  for  days  in  order  to  rest 
their  weary  pack-horses  and  for 
age  for  themselves." 

As  Mr.  Speed  says:  "The  ac 
counts  of  the  travel  over  the  Wil 
derness  road  excite  admiration 
for  the  courage  and  hardihood  of 
the  bold  men  who  inaugurated 
and  guided  it;  they  also  arouse 
strong  sympathy  for  the  women 
and  children  who  cheerfully 


38  Nancy  Hanks 

shared  the  privations  entailed  on 
them.  There  is  a  deep  pathos  in 
the  story  of  that  great  journeying, 
as  the  imagination  readily  pictures 
the  companies  of  men,  women, 
and  children  moving  through  the 
wilderness.  .  .  .  The  great  emi 
gration  from  1775  to  1795,  a 
period  of  twenty  years,  was  a 
movement  on  foot.  Many  of  the 
accounts  of  the  foot  travel  of  that 
day,  if  not  authenticated  beyond 
question,  would  read  like  fables 
of  antiquity." 

Happily  no  grave  accidents,  so 
far  as  we  know,  threatened  the 
party  of  which  Joseph  Hanks  and 
his  family  were  members.  No 
Indians  or  wild  beasts  attacked 
them.  There  were  even  no  hard- 


Nancy  Hanks  39 

ships  which  have  come  down  in 
tradition.  No  doubt,  to  the  little 
girl  Nancy  the  whole  journey  was 
a  delight,  if  made,  as  doubtless  it 
was,  from  a  safe  perch  on  the  pack- 
saddle  of  one  of  her  father's  horses. 
It  is  probable  that  Joseph  Hanks 
had  made  a  previous  journey  into 
Kentucky,  or  through  some  friend 
had  selected  and  entered  the  land 
to  which  the  family  went  at  the  end 
of  their  long  and  perilous  journey. 
It  was  usual  for  a  pioneer  who 
contemplated  moving  to  prospect 
in  the  new  country  before  ventur 
ing  to  take  his  family  there.  The 
farm  on  which  Joseph  settled  con 
sisted  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
acres  near  Elizabeth  town,  in  what 
is  now  Nelson  County.  The  In- 


40  Nancy  Hanks 

dians  were  still  disputing  the  right 
to  Kentucky  with  the  pioneers, 
and  by  the  time  that  Joseph  Hanks 
came  into  the  country  it  was  cus 
tomary  for  the  settlers  to  live  in 
stockades  for  mutual  protection. 
Such  a  stockade  had  existed  since 
1780,  where  Elizabethtown  now 
stands.  It  was  composed  of  three 
forts  and  several  blockhouses.  It 
was  not  until  1 793  that  Elizabeth- 
town  was  laid  out  as  a  village  and 
the  yellow  poplar  logs,  of  which 
the  first  court-house  was  built,  cut 
and  made  ready. 

The  first  year  of  the  Hanks 
family  in  Kentucky  was  spent,  no 
doubt,  in  cutting  logs  for  the  new 
cabin  into  which  they  were  to 
move,  and  in  cultivating  the 


Nancy  Hanks  41 

fields.  The  winter  was  spent  in 
hunting  and  fishing  and  exploring 
the  new  country.  All  of  this 
work  was  done  more  or  less  in 
company  with  their  friends  and 
relatives,  the  Sparrows,  Berrys, 
and  Mitchells,  who  had  formed  a 
settlement  a  few  miles  away,  near 
the  present  town  of  Springfield, 
Washington  County. 

Joseph  Hanks  lived  but  four 
years  after  he  came  to  Kentucky, 
yet  he  had  at  his  death  a  goodly 
amount  of  stock  for  that  time. 
His  will,  dated  January  gth,  1793, 
and  probated  May  I4th,  1793, 
reads  as  follows : 

"In  the  name  of  God  Amen. 
I,  Joseph  Hanks  of  Nelson 
County,  State  of  Kentucky,  being 


42  Nancy  Hanks 

of  sound  mind  and  memory,  but 
weak  in  body  and  calling  to  mind 
the  frailty  of  all  human  nature, 
do  make  and  demise  this  my  last 
will  and  testament  in  the  manner 
and  form  following,  to  wit :  Item. 
I  give  and  bequeath  unto  my  son 
Thomas  one  sorrel  horse  called 
Major.  Item.  I  give  and  be 
queath  unto  my  son  Joshua  one 
gray  mare  Bonny.  Item.  I  give 
and  bequeath  unto  my  son  Wil 
liam  one  gray  horse  called  Gilbert. 
Item.  I  give  and  bequeath  unto 
my  son  Charles  one  roan  horse 
called  Tobe.  Item.  I  give  and 
bequeath  unto  my  son  Joseph  one 
horse  called  Bald.  Also  the  land 
whereon  I  now  live,  containing 
one  hundred  and  fifty  acres. 


Facsimile  of  Will  Left 


by  Joseph  Hanks. 


Nancy  Hanks  43 

Item.  I  give  and  bequeath  unto 
my  daughter  Elizabeth  one  heifer 
yearling  called  Gentle.  Item.  I 
give  and  bequeath  unto  my 
daughter  Polly  one  heifer  year 
ling  called  Lady.  I  give  and  be 
queath  unto  my  daughter  Nancy 
one  heifer  yearling  called  Peidy. 
Item.  I  give  and  bequeath  unto 
my  wife  Nanny  all  and  singular 
my  whole  estate  during  her  life, 
afterward  to  be  equally  divided 
between  all  my  children.  It  is 
also  my  wish  and  desire  that  the 
whole  of  the  property  first  above 
bequeathed  should  be  the  property 
of  my  wife  during  her  life.  And 
lastly,  I  constitute,  ordain,  and 
appoint  my  wife  Nanny  and  my 
son  William  as  my  executrix  and 


44  Nancy  Hanks 

executor  to  this  my  last  will  and 
Testament." 

It  is  evident  from  this  will  that 
Nancy  Hanks'  father  was  not  a 
slave  owner,  although  he  had  a 
large  estate  and  must  have  had 
negroes  to  work  the  plantation. 
He  had  doubtless  freed  them  all 
before  he  died,  for  he  certainly 
did  not  will  them  away,  as  was 
customary  in  those  days,  when 
negroes  were  almost  always  dis 
posed  of  in  the  following  manner: 
"  I  give  and  bequeath  to  my  be 
loved  daughter  one  negro  woman 
named  Molly  during  her  natural 
life,  and  at  her  death  the  said 
Molly  and  her  increase  hereafter 
to  be  equally  divided  among  all 
her  children." 


Nancy  Hanks  45 

This  document  shows  something 
more,  however,  than  the  amount 
of  property  which  a  prosperous 
pioneer  of  that  time  would  have 
to  bequeath,  and  has  told  some 
thing  more  than  that  Joseph 
Hanks  was  not  a  slave  holder.  It 
settles  the  question  of  Nancy 
Hanks'  parentage,  showing  that 
she  had  a  father  who  recognized 
her  in  his  will  with  the  same  gen 
erosity  that  he  did  her  brothers 
and  sisters. 


CHAPTER   III. 

AFTER  Joseph  Hanks'  death  his 
children  married  and  scattered. 
The  genealogy  of  the  Hanks  fam 
ily  in  America  (soon  to  be  pub 
lished)  gives  the  history  of  all 
his  descendants.  The  only  ones 
mentioned  here,  will  therefore 
be  those  who  were  most  inti 
mately  associated  with  the  life 
of  Nancy  Hanks,  the  mother  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  These  were 
Nancy's  brothers,  William  and 
Joseph,  and  her  sisters,  Elizabeth 
and  Mary,  or  Polly,  as  she  was 

sometimes    called,    all    of   whom, 
46 


Nancy  Hanks  47 

except  Polly,  moved  later  to 
Indiana  and  lived  near  their 
sister  Nancy.  William  was  the 
first  to  marry.  In  the  old  mar 
riage  returns  to  be  seen  at  Bards- 
town,  Ky.,  is  the  following  en 
try:  "On  the  1 2th  day  of  Sep 
tember,  1793,  by  Joseph  Dodge, 
minister,  William  Hanks  and 
Elizabeth  Hall."  This  Elizabeth, 
who  thus  became  Nancy's  sister- 
in-law,  was  of  a  Virginia  family 
which,  like  the  Hankses,  had 
recently  moved  into  Kentucky. 
William  and  Elizabeth  Hall 
Hanks  had  eleven  children,  one 
of  whom,  John  Hanks,  figures 
largely  in  the  early  life  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln.  Nancy's  sister 
Elizabeth  also  married  into  the 


48  Nancy  Hanks 

same  family,  becoming  Mrs.  Levi 
Hall.  Elizabeth  and  Levi  Hall 
were  the  children  of  Mrs.  Hall,  of 
Greensburg,  Kentucky,  whose  hus 
band  was  killed  by  the  Indians,  and 
who  a  few  years  later  married  Caleb 
Hazel,  Abraham  Lincoln's  first 
teacher.  Among  the  marriage  rec 
ords  of  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Ogden, 
of  Elizabethtown,  Ky.,  it  is  found 
that  Joseph  Hanks  and  Polly 
Young  were  married  November 
loth,  1810.  It  would  seem  that  this 
son  Joseph  had  been  remembered 
rather  more  generously  by  his  fa 
ther  than  his  brother,  for  the  will 
reads :  "  I  give  and  bequeath  unto 
my  son  Joseph  one  horse  called 
Bald ;  also  the  land  whereon  I  now 
live,  containing  150  acres."  Jos- 


Nancy  Hanks  49 

eph  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
one  of  the  children  who  received 
land  by  his  father's  will.  And  he 
continued  to  live  at  Elizabethtown, 
his  place  being  known  as  "  Red 
Hill. "  He  must  have  been  well-to- 
do,  for  old  deeds  make  note  of  his 
owning  horses,  implements,  furni 
ture,  and  stock.  He  was  by  trade 
a  carpenter  and  cabinet-maker. 

The  second  sister  of  Nancy,  in 
whom  we  are  interested,  Mary,  or 
Polly,  was  married  by  the  same 
minister  as  her  brother  William, 
the  Rev.  Joseph  Dodge.  His  re 
turns  show  that  this  marriage  took 
place  at  Elizabethtown  on  Decem 
ber  loth,  1795.  Her  husband  was 
Jesse  Friend,  whose  brother 
Charles  married  Nancy  Sparrow 


50  Nancy  Hanks 

and  had  a  son  named  Dennis,  who 
has  been  often  mentioned  as  one 
of  the  Hanks  family. 

Nancy  Hanks  was  but  nine  years 
old  when  her  father  died,  and 
soon  the  dear  mother  also  fol 
lowed  her  husband.  The  little 
orphan  then  went  to  live  with 
her  mother's  sister,  Mrs.  Rich 
ard  Berry,  ne'e  Shipley,  at  Beach- 
land,  a  pretty  place  near  Spring 
field.  Here  all  her  aunts,  uncles, 
and  cousins  on  her  mother's  side, 
the  Mitchells,  S  h  i  p  le  y  s,  and 
Berrys,  had  settled  when  Joseph 
Hanks  made  his  home  in  Eliza- 
bethtown.  With  this  kind  "  Uncle 
Richard  and  Aunt  Lucy  "  Nancy 
lived  until  she  was  married, 
the  constant  playmate  and  be- 


Nancy  Hanks  5  i 

loved  friend  of  her  two  cousins, 
Frank  and  Ned  Berry.  Theirs 
was  a  merry  life  for  a  few  years 
there  in  old  Kentucky,  and  the 
beautiful  Nancy  Hanks  seems  to 
have  been  the  centre  and  leader 
in  all  the  merry  country  parties. 
Bright,  scintillating,  noted  for  her 
keen  wit  and  repartee,  she  had 
withal  a  great  loving  heart. 

Among  the  many  friends  who 
visited  at  the  old  Berry  home 
stead  was  one  cousin,  some  six 
years  older  than  Nancy,  known 
as  Thomas  Lincoln.  His  mother, 
Mary  Shipley,  was  the  oldest  sis 
ter  of  Nancy's  mother.  She  had 
been  married  in  Virginia  before 
the  migration  of  the  family  to 
Kentucky,  to  Abraham  Lincoln, 


52  Nancy  Hanks 

of  Rockingham  County.  This 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  well-to-do 
farmer,  owning  a  tract  of  some  two 
hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land. 
His  father,  John  Lincoln,  had 
come  into  Virginia  from  Pennsyl 
vania,  probably  influenced  to  this 
step  by  his  friend,  Daniel  Boone, 
who  had  moved  to  North  Carolina 
with  his  father's  family  in  1748. 
Daniel  Boone  had  never  been 
satisfied,  however,  to  stay  in 
North  Carolina,  and  in  1769  he 
had  begun  to  explore  the  land  to 
the  westward.  Finally,  in  1773, 
he  had  moved  with  his  family  and 
a  few  neighbors  to  Kentucky. 
Abraham  Lincoln,  born  of  a  race 
of  pioneers,  became  restless  in  his 
Virginia  home,  as  he  heard  from 


Nancy  Hanks  53 

time  to  time  from  the  Boones  and 
others  of  the  settlers  in  the  new 
country,  and  finally  in  1780  he 
sold  his  Virginia  property,  went 
to  Kentucky,  entered  a  large  tract 
of  land,  and  returning,  moved  his 
family.  Eight  years  later,  when 
he  was  killed  by  Indians,  he  owned 
twelve  thousand  acres  of  land. 

According  to  the  laws  of  Ken 
tucky  governing  property,  nearly 
all  of  his  estate  went  to  his  old 
est  son,  Mordecai.  His  youngest 
son,  Thomas,  who  was  only  nine 
years  old  at  his  death,  received 
nothing.  He  lived  about  with 
one  and  another  members  of  his 
family,  and  eventually  went  to 
Elizabethtown  and  learned  the 
carpenter  trade  of  his  cousin, 


54  Nancy  Hanks 

Joseph  Hanks.  He  seems  to 
have  made  good  progress  at  his 
trade,  for,  according  to  an  old  and 
trustworthy  acquaintance,  he  had 
the  "best  set  of  tools  in  the  coun 
try  "  and  was  a  good  carpenter  for 
those  days.  No  doubt,  at  Red 
Hill,  the  home  of  Joseph  Hanks, 
he  saw  his  Cousin  Nancy  at  times. 
He  may  have  met  her  when  vis 
iting  his  brother  Mordecai,  who 
lived  not  far  from  the  Berrys,' 
Nancy's  home.  At  all  events  the 
acquaintance  between  the  two 
ripened  into  love  and  they  became 
engaged.  It  has  been  inferred  by 
those  who  have  made  no  investi 
gation  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  life 
that  Nancy  Hanks  made  a  very 
poor  choice  of  a  husband.  The 


c-Xs* 


^^  ^^?e^^<^5^^ 

^^.^^^;^^  -*C  ^~-^3^Z 


Minister's  Return  of  Marriage  of  Nancy  Hanks  to  Thomas 
'Lincoln.— (facsimile  front  tlie  original  discovered  about  1885 
through  the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Charlotte  \Tawter  and  Mr  Squire 
Whitehill  Thompson  of  Springfield  Kentucky. 


56  Nancy  Hanks 

facts  do  not  warrant  this  theory. 
Thomas  Lincoln  had  been  forced 
from  his  boyhood  to  shift  for  him 
self  in  a  young  and  undeveloped 
country.  He  is  known  to  have 
been  a  man  who  in  spite  of  this 
wandering  life  contracted  no  bad 
habits.  He  was  temperate  and 
honest,  and  his  name  is  recorded 
in  more  than  one  place  in  the 
records  of  Kentucky.  He  was  a 
church-goer,  and,  if  tradition  may 
be  believed,  a  stout  defender  of 
his  peculiar  religious  views.  He 
held  advanced  ideas  of  what  was 
already  an  important  public  ques 
tion  in  Kentucky,  the  right  to 
hold  negroes  as  slaves.  One  of 
his  old  friends  has  said  of  him  and 
his  wife,  Nancy  Hanks,  that  they 


Nancy  Hanks  57 

were  "  just  steeped  full  of  notions 
about  the  wrongs  of  slavery  and 
the  rights  of  men,  as  explained 
by  Thomas  Jefferson  and  Thomas 
Paine."  These  facts  show  that 
he  must  have  been  a  man  of  some 
natural  intellectual  attainment. 
He  was  a  companionable  man  too, 
and  famous  as  a  story-teller,  an 
accomplishment  which  seems  to 
have  been  common  to  the  Lin- 
coins,  for  Kentucky  traditions  say 
that  Mordecai  Lincoln,  Thomas' 
brother,  was  one  of  the  famous 
story-tellers  of  the  country.  Con 
sidering  the  disadvantages  under 
which  he  had  labored,  he  had  a 
very  good  start  in  life  when  he 
became  engaged  to  Nancy  Hanks. 
He  had  a  trade  and  owned  a  farm 


58  Nancy  Hanks 

which  he  had  bought  in  1803  in 
Buffalo,  and  also  land  in  Eliza 
beth  town.  If  all  the  conditions 
of  his  life  be  taken  into  con 
sideration,  it  is  not  true,  as  has 
been  said,  that  Thomas  Lincoln 
was  at  this  time  a  shiftless  and 
purposeless  man.  In  appearance 
he  was  short  and  stout,  with  dark 
hair,  a  full  face,  gray  eyes,  and 
prominent  nose.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  one  of  the  strongest 
men  in  his  county,  the  terror  of 
wrestlers  and  evil-doers. 

The  traditions  of  Nancy  Hanks' 
appearance  at  this  time  all  agree 
in  calling  her  a  beautiful  girl. 
She  is  said  to  have  been  of  me 
dium  height,  weighing  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty  pounds,  with 


Nancy  Hanks  59 

light  hair,  beautiful  eyes,  a  sweet 
sensitive  mouth,  and  a  kindly  and 
gentle  manner. 

According  to  the  customs  of 
the  time  the  marriage  bond  was 
entered  before  the  ceremony 
took  place.  This  was  properly 
done  on  June  i2th,  1806,  as  the 
fac-simile  of  the  original  page 
shows.  Two  days  later  the  mar 
riage  ceremony  was  performed  at 
the  home  of  Richard  Berry,  by 
the  Rev.  Jesse  Head,  a  Methodist 
preacher  of  Washington  County, 
Ky.  This  Jesse  Head  was  one  of 
the  characters  of  the  time.  He 
was  not  only  a  preacher  but  a  car 
penter,  an  editor,  and  a  country 
judge.  He  held  advanced  notions 
in  both  religion  and  politics,' and 


IW^KR  i 
^:M^l-i  !V" 


f^iW'j** 
*&wWi 

^S^i«  JM 


60 


Nancy   Hanks  61 

it  was  from  him  that  Thomas  Lin 
coln  is  said  to  have  imbibed  many 
of  his  ideas  on  the  slavery  ques 
tion.  As  required  by  the  law  of 
the  time,  Jesse  Head  returned  the 
marriage  bond  of  Thomas  Lincoln 
and  Nancy  Hanks,  as  will  be  seen 
from  an  examination  of  the  fac 
simile,  page  63.  He  also  gave  to 
the  new  couple  a  marriage  certifi 
cate  (page  55). 

Thus  the  marriage  between  the 
two  was  duly  recorded ;  but  years 
afterwards,  when  the  son  of  this 
union  had  become  one  of  the 
greatest  men  of  the  country,  his 
enemies,  believing  that  his  origin 
was  humble,  sought  to  make  it 
dishonest  as  well.  The  story  was 
spread  that  his  father  and  mother 


6  2  Nancy  Hanks 

were  never  married,  and  it  came 
to  be  generally  believed.  A  mere 
accident  led  to  its  investigation. 
In  1882  Capt.  ].  W.  Wartman, 
clerk  of  the  United  States  Court 
at  Evansville,  Ind.,  was  talking 
with  a  distinguished  Kentucky 
citizen,  Christopher  Columbus 
Graham.  Dr.  Graham  was  born 
at  Worthington's  Station,  near 
Danville,  Ky.,  in  1784.  He  lived, 
in  the  State  until  his  death  at 
Louisville  in  1885.  This  long 
period  was  to  the  very  end  one 
of  useful  activity.  A  physician 
by  profession,  Dr.  Graham  was  by 
his  love  of  nature  a  botanist, 
geologist,  and  naturalist.  His  ob 
servations  on  the  flora,  fauna,  and 
strata  of  Kentucky  are  quoted  on 


64  Nancy  Hanks 

both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  by 
scientists.  For  many  years  Dr. 
Graham  was  the  owner  of  the 
famous  Harrodsburg  Spring  s. 
About  1852  he  sold  this  property 
to  the  War  Department  of  the 
United  States  as  a  retreat  for  in 
valid  military  officers.  After  the 
sale  of  the  springs  he  spent  most 
of  his  time  in  study  and  in  ar 
ranging  his  fine  cabinet  of  Ken 
tucky  geology  and  natural  history 
before  selling  it  to  the  Louisville 
Library  Association.  Naturally 
Dr.  Graham  had  known  in  his 
lifetime  most  of  the  inhabitants 
of  his  State.  In  his  conversation 
with  Mr.  Wartman  he  said  that 
he  was  present  at  the  marriage 
of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy 


Nancy  Hanks  65 

Hanks.  Mr.  Wartman  knew  of 
the  doubt  which  had  been  thrown 
upon  this  marriage,  and  realizing 
the  historical  importance  of  such 
a  testimony,  and  thinking  that  it 
might  lead  to  the  discovery  of 
documentary  proofs  of  the  mar 
riage,  he  secured  from  Mr.  Gra 
ham  the  following  affidavit: 

"  I,  Christopher  C.  Graham,  now 
of  Louisville,  Ky.,  aged  ninety- 
eight  years,  on  my  oath  say:  That 
I  was  present  at  the  marriage 
of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy 
Hanks,  in  Washington  County, 
near  the  town  of  Springfield, 
Kentucky;  that  one  Jesse  Head, 
a  Methodist  preacher  of  Spring 
field,  Kentucky,  performed  the 
ceremony.  I  knew  the  said 


66  Nancy  Hanks 

Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy 
Hanks  well,  and  know  the  said 
Nancy  Hanks  to  have  been  vir 
tuous  and  respectable,  and  of 
good  parentage.  I  do  not  remem 
ber  the  exact  date  of  the  marriage, 
but  was  present  at  the  marriage 
aforesaid ,  and  I  make  this  affida 
vit  freely,  and  at  the  request  of  J. 
W.  Wartman,  to  whom,  for  the 
first  time,  I  have  this  day  inci 
dentally  stated  the  fact  of  my 
presence  at  the  said  wedding  of 
President  Lincoln's  father  and 
mother.  I  make  this  affidavit  to 
vindicate  the  character  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks,  and  to 
put  to  rest  forever  the  legitimacy 
of  Abraham  Lincon's  birth.  I 
was  formerly  proprietor  of  Har- 


Nancy  Hanks  67 

rodsburg  Springs,  I  am  a  retired 
physician,  and  am  now  a  resident 
of  Louisville,  Kentucky.  I  think 
Felix  Grundy  was  also  present  at 
the  marriage  of  said  Thomas  Lin 
coln  and  Nancy  Hanks,  the  father 
and  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
The  said  Jesse  Head,  the  officiating 
minister  at  the  marriage  aforesaid, 
afterward  removed  to  Harrodsburg, 
Kentucky,  and  edited  a  paper 
there,  and  died  at  that  place. 
"  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 

GRAHAM. 

"  Subscribed  and  sworn  to  be 
fore  me  this  March  2Oth,  A.D.  1882. 
N.  C.  Butler,  Clerk  United  States 
Circuit  Court,  First  District  In 
diana.  By  J.  W.  Wartman,  Dep 
uty  Clerk." 


68  Nancy  Hanks 

This  affidavit  attracted  wide 
attention  at  the  time  and  an  in 
vestigation  was  at  once  begun. 
Gradually  the  documents  which 
have  been  quoted  above  were 
unearthed,  owing  largely  to  the 
efforts  of  Mrs.  Vanter,  and  Mr. 
Thompson  of  Louisville,  Ky. 

The  cabin  in  which  Nancy  and 
Thomas  were  married  still  stands 
in  Beechland,  near  Springfield. 
One  of  their  old  neighbors  once 
said :  "  It  was  a  large  house  for 
those  days  when  men  slept  with 
their  guns  under  their  pillows. 
It  was  twice  as  large  as  the  meet 
ing-house."  The  marriage  was 
fixed  in  the  memory  of  the  old 
inhabitants  by  a  grand  infair, 
which  was  given  by  Nancy  s 


Nancy  Hanks  69 

guardian,  J.  H.  Parrott.  Chris 
topher  Columbus  Graham  wrote 
once  of  this  celebration :  "  I  came 
to  the  Lincoln-Hanks  wedding  in 
1806.  Rev.  or  Judge  Jesse  Head 
was  one  of  the  most  prominent 
men  there,  as  he  was  able  to  own 
slaves,  but  did  not  on  principle. 
Next  came  Mordecai  Lincoln,  at 
one  time  a  member  of  the  Ken 
tucky  Legislature." 

He  then  tells  how  at  the  wed 
ding  feast  they  had  bear  meat, 
venison,  wild  turkey,  ducks,  and 
"  a  sheep  that  the  two  families 
barbecued  whole  over  coals  of 
wood  burned  in  a  pit,  and  covered 
with  green  boughs  to  keep  the 
juices  in." 


CHAPTER    IV, 

MR.  GRAHAM  is  not  the  only  one 
who  has  left  a  record  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  at  this 
time.  Among  the  many  hun 
dreds  of  letters  which  have  been 
written  in  regard  to  Nancy  Hanks 
and  Thomas  Lincoln  one  seems 
to  have  a  truer  ring  than  many. 
This  was  written  by  Samuel  Hay- 
croft,  formerly  clerk  of  Elizabeth- 
town,  Ky.,  and  is  dated  April 
1 8th,  1874.  He  says:  "In  the 
Louisville  Courier  of  February 
2Oth,  1874,  is  a  communication 

about    the    Lincoln    family  which 
70 


Nancy  Hanks  71 

has  the  impress  of  truth.  I  knew 
Mordeeai  Lincoln,  Thomas  Lin 
coln,  and  the  Berry s.  I  have  no 
idea  who  was  the  author,  the  ini 
tials  alone  being  given,  but  I  have 
no  doubt  that  it  is  substantially 
the  true  history.  After  the  mar 
riage  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
Nancy  Hanks  he  brought  her  to 
Elizabethtown,  where  he  lived 
and  worked  at  his  carpenter's 
trade.  A  house  is  still  standing 
in  this  neighborhood,  the  inside 
work  of  which  he  did.  I  knew 
him  well.  He  had  one  child  born 
in  Elizabethtown,  who  died  after 
ward.  He  then  moved  to  a  place 
called  Buffalo,  about  fourteen 
miles  from  Elizabethtown,  and 
here  Abraham  was  born.  They 


72  Nancy  Hanks 

then  moved  about  four  miles  to 
the  head  of  Knob  Creek,  in  the 
same  county.  Then  he  moved  to 
Indiana,  where  I  lost  sight  of  him 
until  Nancy  was  dead,  and  he 
came  back  to  Elizabethtown  and 
married  a  widow  Johnston,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Sally  Bush. 
I  was  then  clerk,  and  knew  all 
about  it." 

This  "  com  mu  n  i  ca  t  i  on,"  to 
which  Mr.  Haycroft  referred  as 
having  "the  impress  of  truth," 
was  as  follows : 

"  Some  time  since  there  fell  into 
my  hands  by  chance  an  evening 
journal  containing  a  letter  to  the 
Louisville  Commercial,  in  which  it 
was  hinted  that  there  had  existed 
clouds  in  the  public  mind  as  to 


Nancy  Hanks  73 

the  marriage  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln's  mother  and  father.  In  the 
year  1859  I  went  to  Springfield, 
Ky.,  to  teach,  and  was  in  that 
same  neighborhood  when  Lincoln 
received  the  nomination  for  Presi 
dent.  On  the  announcement  of 
the  news  of  the  candidate  all  were 
on  the  qui  vivc  to  know  who  the 
stranger  was,  so  unexpectedly 
launched  on  a  perilous  sea.  A 
farmer  remarked  that  he  should 
not  be  surprised  if  this  was  the 
son  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy 
Hanks,  who  were  married  at  the 
home  of  Uncle  Frank  Berry.  In 
a  short  time  this  supposition  of 
the  farmer  was  confirmed  by 
the  announcement  of  the  father's 
name.  A  few  days  later  I  visited 


74  Nancy  Hanks 

an  aged  lady,  named  Mrs.  Litsey, 
who  interested  me  much  by  giv 
ing  me  a  description  of  the  wed 
ding  of  the  father  and  mother 
of  the  new  candidate,  she  having 
been  a  friend  of  the  bride  and 
present  at  the  marriage. 

"  In  1866,  after  the  liberation  of 
four  million  of  slaves  had  made 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
memorable,  I  was  again  in  the 
neighborhood  and  visited  the  old 
home,  in  which  were  celebrated 
the  nuptials  above  referred  to. 
Its  surroundings  are  among  the 
most  picturesque  in  Kentucky. 
The  Beach  Fork,  a  small  river 
of  wonderful  meanderings,  flows 
near,  and  is  lost  to  view  in  a 
semicircular  amphitheatre  of  hills. 


Nancy  Hanks  75 

While  surveying  the  surrounding 
landscape  I  thought  it  not  strange 
that  inspiration  had  fallen  upon 
the  mother  of  him  who  should  be 
known  as  the  liberator  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  official 
record  of  this  marriage  will  prob 
ably  be  found  at  Springfield. 

"  As  I  remember  the  story  of 
Nancy  Hanks,  it  ran  thus:  Her 
mother's  name  before  marriage 
was  Shipley,  and  one  of  her  sis 
ters  married  a  Mr.  Berry ;  another 
sister  married  Robert  Mitchell, 
who  also  came  to  Kentucky  about 
the  year  1780.  While  on  the 
journey  the  Mitchells  were  at 
tacked  by  the  Indians  and  Mrs. 
Mitchell  fatally  wounded,  and 
their  only  daughter,  Sarah,  a 


76  Nancy  Hanks 

child  eleven  years  old,  was  cap 
tured  and  carried  into  Michigan, 
where  a  squaw  saved  her  life  by 
hiding  her  behind  a  big  log.  Mr. 
Mitchell  mounted  his  horse,  and, 
accompanied  by  his  friend,  Gen 
eral  Adair,  went  in  search  of  his 
daughter,  but  was  drowned  in  the 
Ohio  River  while  attempting  to 
cross  it.  The  sons  of  this  father 
and  mother  were  afterward  scat 
tered  to  different  parts  of  the 
State. 

"One  of  them,  Daniel,  settled 
in  Washington  County,  on  the 
Beach  Fork,  a  few  miles  from 
Springfield,  and  near  his  two 
cousins,  Frank  and  Ned  Berry. 
To  these  cousins  came  Nancy 
Hanks,  and  the  legend  is  that 


Nancy  Planks  77 

'  her  cheerful  disposition  and  ac 
tive  habits  were  a  dower  to  those 
pioneers.'  Soon  after  Mad  An 
thony  Wayne's  treaty  with  the 
Indians  in  1794  or  1795,  the  lost 
Sarah  was  returned  to  her  friends, 
and  lived  in  the  home  of  her 
uncle,  Richard  Berry,  with  her 
cousins,  Frank  and  Ned  Berry 
and  Nancy  Hanks,  until  both 
girls  were  married. 

"  These  girls  were  as  intimate 
as  sisters.  Sarah  Mitchell  was 
the  pupil  of  Nancy  Hanks  in 
learning  to  spin  flax,  the  latter 
being  adept  in  that  now  lost  art. 
It  was  the  custom  in  those  days  to 
have  spinning  parties,  on  which 
occasions  the  wheels  of  the  ladies 
were  carried  to  the  house  desig- 


78  Nancy  Hanks 

nated,  to  which  the  competitors, 
distaff  in  hand,  came  ready  for 
the  work  of  the  day.  At  a  given 
hour  the  wheels  were  put  in  mo 
tion,  and  the  filmy  fibre  took  the 
form  of  firmly  lengthened  strands 
in  their  mystic  hands.  Tradition 
says  that  Nancy  Hanks  generally 
bore  the  palm,  her  spools  yielding 
the  longest  and  finest  thread. 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  an 
exception  to  the  rule  that  great 
men  require  that  their  mothers 
should  be  talented. 

"  Thomas  Lincoln  came,  it  is 
believed,  into  this  neighborhood 
to  visit  Mordecai  Lincoln,  who 
lived  near  Major  Berry,  and  there 
learned  of  the  skill  of  Nancy 
Hanks.  Like  Ulysses  he  was  am- 


Nancy  HankvS  79 

bitious  and  later  became  the 
husband  of  Nancy  Hanks,  whose 
thread  of  gold  has  been  woven  by 
the  hand  and  pen  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  into  the  warp  and  woof  of 
the  national  Constitution. 

"  Sarah  Mitchell  was  a  woman 
of  a  high  order  of  talent.  She 
married  a  Virginian,  had  many 
fine  children,  and  retained  until 
her  death  the  greatest  veneration 
for  the  memory  of  her  cousin, 
whose  name  she  gave  to  one  of 
her  daughters.  Modesty  has  laid 
the  impress  of  silence  upon  these 
relatives  of  a  noble  woman,  but 
when  the  voice  of  calumny  has 
presumed  to  sully  her  name,  they 
hurl  the  accusation  to  the  ground 
and  proclaim  her  the  beautiful 


8o  Nancy  Hanks 

character  they  had  learned  to  love 
long  before  they  knew  that  to  her 
had  been  given  an  honored  son. 

"  From  one  who  has  learned 
from  saintly  lips  to  admire  her 
grandmother's  cousin. 

"C.   S.   V.   H." 

The  writer  of  this  letter,  Mrs. 
C.  S.  H.  Vawter,  was  a  Massachu 
setts  woman,  a  daughter  of  John 
Hobart  of  Leicester,  and  a  connec 
tion  of  Garrett  S.  Hobart,  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States. 
She  was  the  granddaughter  of 
Sarah  Shipley  Mitchell,  and  there 
fore  properly  referred  to  Nancy 
Hanks  as  her  grandmother's  cous 
in.  Her  grandmother  afterward 
married  John  Thompson,  and  one 


Nancy  Hanks  8  i 

of     their     children     was     named 
Nancy  Hanks  Thompson. 

After  the  marriage  ceremony  at 
Beechland,  Thomas  Lincoln  took 
his  wife  to  Elizabethtown,  where 
he  had  built  a  cabin  home  for  her. 
The  life  of  the  family  there  was 
of  course  the  extremely  simple 
life  of  the  pioneer  of  those  days. 
One  large  room,  with  a  loft  over 
head,  reached  by  a  rough  stair 
case  or  ladder,  an  outside  shed 
used  for  a  store-room  and  summer 
kitchen,  was  the  ordinary  home. 
These  cabins  were  made  habitable 
in  winter  by  a  huge  fireplace, 
over  which  all  the  cooking  was 
done ;  a  crane  on  which  to  hang 
the  iron  pots  and  a  Dutch  oven, 

constituting    the    cooking    outfit. 
6 


82  Nancy  Hanks 

The  furniture  was  home-made. 
Rough  slabs,  into  which  logs  had 
been  fitted,  made  the  chairs  and 
benches.  The  table  and  bed 
steads  were  also  of  home  manu 
facture,  and  the  cover-lids  for  the 
beds  were  also  made  by  the  busy 
housewife  on  the  home-made 
loom  and  wheel.  The  heavy 
skins  of  animals  furnished  all 
other  coverings  and  rugs. 

The  next  spring  after  her  mar 
riage  Nancy's  first  child  was  born, 
a  little  girl  known  as  Sarah.  The 
Lincolns  were  not  contented  at 
Elizabet.htown,  however,  and  in 
1808  moved  to  the  farm  which 
Thomas  had  bought  in  1803  and 
which  was  only  fourteen  miles 
away. 


Nancy  Hanks  83 

Until  within  a  few  years  the  old 
house  at  Elizabethtown,  where 
Thomas  Lincoln  first  took  his 
bride,  Nancy  Hanks,  stood  as 
Thomas  himself  had  built  it,  on 
what  was  then  known  as  Mill 
Creek.  It  was  burned  down  ac 
cidentally  a  few  years  ago,  but  the 
well  hard  by  the  house  is  still 
there,  to  mark  the  place  where 
Abraham  Lincoln's  father  and 
mother  spent  the  first  two  years 
of  their  happy  married  life,  and 
where  their  first  little  one,  Sarah, 
was  born,  in  1807. 

No  doubt,  Thomas  Lincoln  had 
been  slowly  preparing  his  land  in 
Buffalo  for  occupation  ever  since 
he  had  acquired  the  title  to  it. 
This  picturesque  farm  was  near 


84  Nancy  Hanks 

the  stream  known  as  the  Big  South 
Fork  of  Nolan  Creek.  The  cabin 
which  was  built  there  exists  to-day, 
although  it  has  had  a  checkered 
history.  It  was  torn  down  at  one 
time  and  the  logs  piled  up,  but  in 
1885  the  farm  was  purchased  by 
Colonel  Dennett  of  New  York,  and 
generously  given  to  the  State  of 
Kentucky  for  a  public  park,  to  be 
known  as  the  Lincoln  Park,  Close 
by  the  house  is  a  remarkable 
spring,  which  for  many  years  gave 
the  name  of  Rock  Spring  Farm  to 
the  place. 

This  house  on  Nolan  Creek, 
Buffalo  as  the  place  is  called,  was 
frequently  visited  while  the  Lin- 
coins  lived  there  by  their  friend, 
Dr.  Graham,  who  tells  us,  "the 


Nancy  Hanks  85 

Lincolns  had  a  cow  and  calf,  milk 
and  butter,  a  good  feather  bed, 
for  I  have  slept  in  it."  The  next 
year  after  they  moved  to  their 
farm  Nancy's  second  child  a  boy, 
came.  He  was  born  on  February 
9th,  1809,  and  was  called  Abra 
ham,  a  name  common  in  both 
the  Hanks  and  Lincoln  families. 
The  boy  grew  to  be  healthy  and 
strong  under  the  influence  of  the 
vigorous  country  air  and  whole 
some  simple  country  life.  He 
was  much  like  his  mother's  fam 
ily,  and  as  he  grew  older  this 
resemblance  increased.  Indeed, 
the  resemblance  between  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  when  he  grew  to  be 
a  man  and  certain  members  of  the 
Hanks  family  is  startling.  On 


86  Nancy  Hanks 

the  next  page  is  a  picture  of  the 
late  Rev.  Stedman  Wright  Hanks, 
of  Cambridge,  Mass.  He  was  a 
descendant  of  Benjamin  Hanks, 
the  brother  of  Nancy  Hanks' 
grandfather,  William  A.  This 
picture  has  been  frequently  taken 
for  Abraham  Lincoln  by  those 
who  knew  the  latter,  as  was  Mr. 
Hanks  himself  even  during  Lin 
coln's  life.  A  comparison  with 
the  facing  picture  will  show  the 
same  characteristics.  He  had 
gray  eyes  and  brown  hair,  and 
was  tall  and  angular  like  Lincoln. 
When  little  Abraham  was  four 
years  old  the  first  event  of  his 
life,  which  probably  made  much 
impression  upon  him,  took  place. 
This  was  leaving  Nolan  Creek 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Taken  in  1860. 

Copyright  by  George  B.  Ayres,  Artist,  Philadelphia,  and  re 
produced  here  by  iris  special  permission. 


Rev.  Stedman  Wright  Hanks. 

(The  remarkable  resemblance  to  the  portrait  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  on  facing  page,  is  evident  at  a  glance.) 


Nancy  Hanks  87 

farm  to  move  four  miles  away  to 
Knob  Creek,  a  little  stream  flow 
ing  into  the  Rolling  Fork  River. 
The  new  cabin  was  beautifully 
located  on  the  slope  of  what  is 
known  as  Muldraugh's  Hill. 
Nancy  Hanks'  life  in  her  new 
home  was  probably  a  duplication 
of  what  it  had  been  at  Buffalo,  the 
same  simple  round  of  duties  of 
milking,  churning,  spinning,  and 
caring  for  her  children.  These 
children  had  become,  we  know 
from  tradition,  the  joy  and  care  of 
her  life.  She  was  well  educated 
and  eager  that  they  too  should 
study.  The  books  in  the  house 
hold  were  few :  a  Bible,  the  "  Ken 
tucky  Preceptor,"  the  school 
reader  of  the  period,  perhaps  a 


88  Nancy  Hanks 

copy  of  "^Esop's  Fables,"  but  it 
is  certain  that  these  books  Nancy 
Hanks  read  often  to  her  children, 
and  it  was  she  who  taught  them 
their  letters.  The  little  girl  Sarah 
was  old  enough  to  go  to  school, 
and  Abraham  was  sent  with  her. 

The  schools  of  the  period  were 
irregular  in  term,  and  not  thor 
oughly  satisfactory  in  instruction. 
Generally  the  teachers  were  stray 
men  of  some  little  education,  who 
were  working  their  way  westward 
or  eastward,  and  stopped  there  a 
little  time  to  earn  their  board  and 
a  pittance  perhaps  by  two  or  three 
months  of  teaching.  One  of  the 
teachers  that  Abraham  Lincoln  in 
later  life  remembered  and  men 
tioned  in  his  autobiography  was 


Nancy  Hanks  89 

Caleb  Hazel,  a  man  whose  family 
had  intermarried  with  the  Halls 
and  Hankses.  Lincoln,  under  the 
instructions  of  his  occasional  mas 
ters  and  his  mother's  teaching, 
became  an  ambitious  student,  and 
one  of  his  old  playmates,  Austin 
Gollagher,  a  man  who  but  recent 
ly  died,  tells  how  Abraham  used 
to  bring  in  a  brush  to  burn  in  the 
fireplace  in  the  evening,  that  he 
might  have  light  to  read  by. 

Simple  as  the  home  was,  and 
hard  as  the  work  no  doubt  was  at 
times,  great  as  the  privations  may 
have  been,  the  picture  that  we 
have  of  Nancy  Hanks'  life  at  this 
period  is  not  an  unpleasant  one. 
Her  children  were  vigorous  and 
happy,  and  evidently  eager  to 


90  Nancy  Hanks 

learn.  She  had  the  joy  of  help 
ing  them  and  of  seeing  their 
growth.  She  was  hospitable  too, 
and  many  an  old  neighbor  has 
left  reminiscences  of  visits  to  her 
home,  one  of  whom  said:  "  The 
Lincolns'  home  at  Knob  Creek 
was  a  very  happy  one.  I  have 
lived  in  this  part  of  the  country 
all  my  life  and  knew  Nancy 
Hanks  and  Thomas  Lincoln  well. 
She  was  a  loving  and  tender  wife, 
adored  by  her  husband  and  chil 
dren,  as  she  was  by  all  who  knew 
her.  I  also  know  those  who  have 
said  aught  against  her,  and  know 
that  they  were  political  enemies 
of  Abraham  Lincoln." 

We   have,    too,    some   amusing 
reminiscences   of   little    Abraham 


Nancy  Hanks  91 

at  this  time.  One  of  the  grand 
daughters  of  Joseph  Hanks,  Jr., 
who  inherited  his  father's  one 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land, 
said :  "  When  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  a  district  lawyer  he  frequent 
ly  visited  grandfather  and  used  to 
relate  with  great  glee  how,  when 
a  little  boy,  his  Uncle  Joseph 
once  whipped  him  soundly  for 
teasing  him  at  his  work.  Grand 
father  loved  his  sister  Nancy 
dearly,  and  her  gentle  and  trust 
ing  nature  was  embodied  in  her 
noble  son,  who  was  an  uncrowned 
king  among  men.  To  her  early 
Christian  training  he  owed  his 
simple  faith  that  helped  him  guide 
the  vship  of  state  safely  through 
the  storm  of  civil  war,  and  in- 


92  Nancy  Hanks 

spired  a  hand  that  bade  a  race  go 
free." 

One  of  Joseph's  grandsons  has 
also  said :  "  Grandfather  was  of  all 
things  a  pioneer.  He  belonged  to 
that  restless  class  of  which  Daniel 
Boone  was  the  highest  type.  He 
was  a  man  of  sterling  honesty,  un 
doubted  courage,  and  high  worth. 
He  always  spoke  of  his  angel  sis 
ter  Nancy  with  reverent  emotion. 
She  taught  him  to  read.  Grand 
father  used  to  talk  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  more  than  any  of  his  kin, 
and  often  told  us  children  stories 
of  their  life  together  at  Elizabeth- 
town,  and  of  a  visit  to  him  when 
Abraham  was  a  little  child,  and 
of  his  most  unpromising  appear 
ance.  Grandfather  died  before 


Nancy   Hanks  93 

Lincoln  attained  his  highest  hon 
ors," 

Life  on  the  farm  at  Knob  Creek 
went  on  for  three  years  in  this 
way.  A  third  child  was  born  to 
Nancy,  but  he  lived  only  a  few 
months.  Thomas  Lincoln  was  no 
doubt  at  this  time  becoming  year 
ly  more  and  more  interested  in 
the  opening  of  the  country.  He 
even  was  venturing  into  that  dan 
gerous  commerce,  carrying  prod 
uce  to  New  Orleans,  which  num 
bers  of  the  pioneers  along  the 
Ohio  River  plied  at  this  period. 
It  was  a  common  practice  among 
them  to  build  a  flatboat,  and, 
loading  it  with  the  produce  of 
their  farms,  work  their  way  down 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers 


94  Nancy   Hanks 

to  New  Orleans,  then  the  great 
market  of  the  West  It  was  a 
long  trip,  attended  by  many  risks 
to  the  produce,  but  if  made  in 
safety  enabled  the  farmer-mer 
chant  to  dispose  of  his  stuffs  to 
advantage,  It  gave  him  too  a 
whiff  of  the  life  of  the  world, 
which  perhaps  was  quite  as  strong 
a  reason  for  his  taking  the  trip  as 
the  hope  of  gaining  a  little  money. 
It  was  probably  about  1815  that 
Thomas  Lincoln  built  a  flatboat, 
and,  loading  it  with  a  cargo  of 
whatever  he  could  gather  from 
his  farm,  floated  down  what  is 
now  Salt  River  into  the  Ohio. 
Christopher  Columbus  Graham 
has  recorded  his  recollections  of 
this  trip: 


Nancy   Hanks  95 

"Thomas  Lincoln,  like  his  son 
after  him,  had  a  notion  that  for 
tunes  could  be  made  by  trips  to 
New  Orleans  by  flatboats.  This 
was  dangerous,  from  snags  and 
whirlpools  in  the  rivers,  from  In 
dians,  and  even,  worse — pirates  of 
the  French,  Canadians,  and  half- 
breeds.  Steam  was  unknown, 
and  the  flats  had  to  be  sold  in 
New  Orleans,  as  they  could  not 
be  rowed  back  against  the  cur 
rent,  The  neighbors  joked  Tom 
for  building  his  boat  too  high  and 
narrow,  from  an  idea  he  had 
about  speed,  that  has  since  been 
adopted  by  ocean  steamers.  But 
he  lacked  in  ballast.  He  loaded 
her  up  with  deer  and  bear  hams 
and  buffalo,  which  last  was  then 


96  Nanly   Hanks 

not  so  plenty  for  meat  or  hides  as 
when  the  Boone  brothers  came  in. 
Besides  he  had  wax,  for  bees 
seemed  to  follow  the  white  peo 
ple,  and  he  had  wolf  and  coon 
and  mink  and  beaver  skins,  gen 
tian  root.  ,  .  . 

"  He  started  down  Knob  Creek 
when  it  was  flush  with  rains. 
When  he  got  to  the  Ohio  it  was 
flush  too,  and  full  of  whirlpools 
and  snags.  He  had  his  tool-chest 
along,  intending  to  stop  and  work 
in  Indiana  and  take  down  another 
boat.  But  he  never  got  to  the 
Mississippi  with  that,  for  it  upset, 
and  he  only  saved  his  chest  and 
part  of  his  load  because  he  was 
near  to  the  Indiana  shore.  He 
stored  what  he  saved  under  bark. 


Nancy   Hanks  97 

and  came  home  afoot,  and  in  debt 
to  neighbors  who  had  helped  him. 
But  people  never  pressed  a  man 
that  lost  by  Indians  or  water.'* 

According  to  tradition,  Thomas 
Lincoln  after  this  catastrophe  to 
his  flatboat,  made  a  trip  north  of 
the  Ohio  River  into  Indiana,  pros 
pecting  for  new  land.  He  seems 
to  have  been  satisfied  with  what 
he  found,  for  when  he  returned  it 
was  with  the  idea  of  selling  and 
moving  his  family  into  Indiana. 
He  already  had  one  brother  in  the 
State,  Josiah  Lincoln,  who  had 
settled  on  the  big  Blue  River,  and 
it  may  have  been  reports  which 
had  come  back  to  Kentucky  from 
his  brother  which  helped  Thomas 

Lincoln    to    decide    to   make    the 
7 


98  Nancy   Hanks 

change.  Years  later  his  son  wrote 
of  this  removal  that  it  was  part 
ly  on  account  of  slavery,  but 
chiefly  on  account  of  the  difficulty 
in  land  titles  in  Kentucky.  At 
all  events,  in  the  year  1816  the 
family  prepared  to  leave  Ken 
tucky.  Their  household  furni 
ture  and  farm  tools  were  packed 
into  a  wagon.  Whatever  of  stock 
they  may  have  owned  was  driven 
behind  and  the  little  procession 
started.  The  first  part  of  their 
journey  could  not  have  been  very 
difficult,  for  at  that  time  the  high 
way  to  the  Ohio  was  excellent  It 
was  after  crossing  the  river  into  In 
diana  that  their  pilgrimage  became 
troublesome;  then  they  no  doubt 
literally  cut  their  way  through  the 


Nancy   Hanks  99 

forests  to  the  land  which  Thomas 
Lincoln  had  taken  up  for  himself 
and  family.  This  land  lay  in 
what  is  now  Spencer  County,  Ind. 
It  was  on  the  Little  Pigeon  Creek, 
about  fifteen  miles  north  of  the 
Ohio  River  and  a  mile  and  a  half 
east  of  Gentry ville. 

To  Nancy  Hanks  this  removal 
from  Kentucky  must  have  been 
full  of  sadness.  She  was  leaving 
behind  a  great  circle  of  relatives 
and  friends.  She  was  leaving  be 
hind  too  the  grave  of  her  youngest 
child,  and  one  of  the  most  pathetic 
incidents  which  has  been  pre 
served  to  us  of  her  life  is  the 
visit  she  made  to  the  little 
grave  with  her  two  older  chil 
dren,  just  before  she  started  on 


ioo         Nancy  Hanks 

her  journey  into  the  Indiana  wil 
derness. 

The  overland  trip,  while  it  may 
have  had  its  perils,  was  not  neces 
sarily  very  difficult  or  unpleasant. 
This  journey  was  attended  by 
none  of  the  dangerous  features 
which  were  characteristic  of  the 
Wilderness  Road.  Indians  and 
wild  animals  no  longer  threat 
ened.  There  was  much  of  amuse 
ment  and  adventure  in  these  trips, 
and  no  doubt  Nancy  Hanks,  as  she 
rode  in  or  walked  by  the  wagon, 
found  much  of  delight  in  the  joy 
of  her  children  over  the  to  them 
novel  and  exciting  journey. 

It  was  after  Indiana  was  reached 
and  the  camp  in  the  wilderness, 
which  was  to  be  their  shelter  was 


Nancy   Planks         101 

built,  that  her  hardships  began. 
What  was  called  a  half-faced 
camp,  a  species  of  log  lean-to, 
without  doors  or  windows,  was 
their  first  home,  and  no  doubt  the 
winter  of  1816  and  1817  must 
have  been  a  trying  one  for  Nancy 
Hanks. 

The  next  year  Thomas  Lincoln 
succeeded  in  building  a  cabin.  It 
was  a  rude  one,  but  a  sufficient 
shelter.  The  family  began  too  to 
find  new  friends  and  neighbors 
in  that  far  distant  country.  They 
joined  the  Pigeon  Creek  Baptist 
Church,  and  gradually  became  as 
sociated  in  whatever  interested  the 
neighborhood.  In  that  year,  too, 
several  of  Nancy's  friends  and  rel 
atives  moved  to  Indiana,  so  that  the 


1 02         Nancy   Hanks 

new  home  became  more  interest 
ing  as  it  became  more  habitable. 

Some  reminiscences  in  south 
western  Indiana  still  tell  of  Nancy 
Hanks,  and  of  the  impression  of 
gentleness  and  brightness  she  left 
everywhere  she  went,  like  a  ray 
of  sunshine.  Indeed,  the  last 
words  recorded  that  she  ever  said 
were,  "  Cheer  up ! 1?  This  was  but 
a  few  days  before  her  death,  when, 
as  the  Rev.  Allen  Brooner  tells 
us,  she  went  to  visit  his  mother, 
who  was  very  ill,  and  who  said 
despondently:  "Mrs.  Lincoln,  I 
am  going  to  die,  You  will  not 
see  me  again  while  living.' 
"You  must  not  say  that,"  said 
Mrs,  Lincoln.  "  Why,  you  will 
live  longer  than  I.  So  cheer  up !  " 


Nancy   Hanks         103 

It  was  but  a  few  days  later,  on 
the  fifth  day  of  the  glorious  Octo 
ber  of  the  year  1818  that  this 
prophecy  came  true  and  the  body 
of  Nancy  Hanks  was  laid  to  rest 
under  the  golden  autumn  leaves, 
in  a  lonely  and  yet  enchanted  spot 
on  the  top  of  the  hill  near  Lincoln 
Station,  Ind.  There  where  Nancy 
and  her  boy  had  often  sat  together 
and  watched  the  gorgeous  colors  of 
the  glorious  sun  set  far  over  the 
hills  is  now  a  simple  white  head 
stone  which  says : 

"  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln,  Mother 
of  President  Lincoln,  Died  Octo 
ber  5,  A.D.  1818.  Age  thirty-five 
years.  Erected  by  a  friend  of  her 
martyred  son." 

To  this   quiet,   restful  spot  not 


104         Nancy   Hanks 

even  a  wagon  road  leads.  It  is 
better  so,  for  Nancy  Hanks  had 
finished  her  work.  She  had  kept 
the  faith. 

The  first  letter  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  ever  wrote  with  that 
hand  which  wras  afterward  to  elec 
trify  the  nation  was  about  his 
mother — that  mother  whom  he 
had  loved  so  dearly  and  had  so 
early  lost,  This  letter  was  writ 
ten  by  Abraham  wrhen  he  was  ten 
years  old,  several  months  after 
his  mother's  death.  It  was  to 
Parson  David  Elkins,  whom  he 
asked  to  come  and  "  preach  a  me 
morial  service  for  my  mother." 
So  it  happened  one  Sunday  morn 
ing  that  two  hundred  people  as 
sembled  about  the  Lincoln  cab- 


Nancy   Hanks         105 

in,  and  from  there  proceeded  to 
the  tree  beneath  which  her  body 
was  laid  to  rest.  There  the 
touching  services  were  read  by 
Rev.  David  Elkins,  who  had  rid 
den  a  hundred  miles  on  horseback 
through  the  wilderness  to  preach 
the  funeral  sermon  for  Nancy 
Hanks,  of  whom  Abraham  Lin 
coln  said  in  after  years  .  "  All  that 
I  am  or  hope  to  be  I  owe  to  my 
angel  mother.  Blessings  on  her 
memory/' 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


YC182227 


